Way of the Wolf: Shifter Legacies 1 (58 page)

Something had pushed Hoberman to the edge of emotional collapse. He tried not to gloat, but what goes around comes around as they say. This man had made his life hard when he was a junior doctor and had later tried to blackmail him. For all he knew, AML had been doing his bidding when they shot Mist that night. The wolf snarled, remembering the burning agony of silver in his guts.

David tried to put some warmth in his voice, but it was hard. “What’s happened to you, George? You don’t look well.”

Chris glared at him. He could read her expression like words. Let
me
handle it, she was thinking. He nodded to her and stepped figuratively back from things. He had wanted her along for her expertise. It would be foolish not to use it, but he wouldn’t leave it all to her. He would get what he needed out of Hoberman if she couldn’t.

“How did you get involved with AML, Doctor Hoberman?” Chris began smoothly. She was enquiring, not condemnatory at all, not accusing, and she certainly didn’t call him a raving idiot racist fanatic, which he manifestly was and she knew it.

Good trick that.

“Wilson came to me,” Hoberman began. “I swear I didn’t ask for this. He came to me!”

“Wilson is?”

“Christopher Wilson; he’s Techtron’s Chief of Operations—number two in the corporation below Stirling himself. I met him at a fundraiser and we got talking about things. He mentioned the coming election and said Techtron was looking for a cause to back. I don’t know why he chose me, but he said I would make a good candidate for Mayor, especially if backed by Techtron’s resources.”

“He probably found out about your AML leanings,” David sneered and received twin glares from his audience. He shrugged them off. “Truth is truth. You can’t go around saying what you do and not expect it to be noticed. Rumours spread. It’s what happens.”

Hoberman nodded reluctantly. “I won’t apologise for it. I say what I think and I won’t be silenced simply because it isn’t polite or politically correct. Wilson was quite insistent about my campaign being something worth his attention and before I knew it, I had AML bodyguards and Techtron funding. I had high ratings in the polls and a good campaign manager and PR. I was on my way to election, I’m sure of it.”

“But?” Chris said when he failed to go on. “What changed?”

“I heard some things. I confronted Wilson and demanded to know if what I’d heard was true. He didn’t even try to deny it! I told him I wouldn’t be party to murder, and he told me I would do what I was told or else he would withdraw funding. I told him I wouldn’t be held hostage that way, and be damned.”

“Good for you, George!”

“It was the end of my bid for Mayor. He pulled Techtron’s support and my campaign collapsed.”

“Go back to where murder became involved. Whose murder, where and when?” Chris said. She was, after all, first and foremost a murder cop.

“We aren’t talking names—”

“I think we are. In fact, I insist.”

“I don’t mean it that way. I mean that I didn’t hear names. It was an AML campaign with Techtron’s backing, or maybe it was just Wilson backing it considering recent events.”

“You mean William Stirling’s death. You think Wilson was behind that?”

“I think AML was behind it, but Wilson will benefit hugely from it. Stirling was a thorn in his side. You wouldn’t believe how many of his projects and schemes that Stirling vetoed over the years. He told me about some of them. Stirling dead, his daughter inherits but she’s missing... convenient, yes?”

Goddess he sounded bitter. He supposed Hoberman felt hard used by Wilson, and from a political point of view, he certainly had been used. Hoberman had been a pleasant face pasted over AML’s grinning death’s head. He was a bigot and racist, but he had drawn the line at murder. David supposed that was a good thing, but he couldn’t find it within himself to feel sorry for him. He should have known what he was signing up for the first day that AML sent bodyguards to shadow him.

Chris continued her interrogation. “What is AML’s endgame here? I can see how taking out Techtron’s CEO is good for Wilson, but what connects them other than money?
Is
it only the money?”

“That’s part of it. Wilson gains control of Techtron in exchange for funding AML’s new campaign, and for a time, mine as well. Everyone knows what AML ultimately wants. You don’t need me to tell you that they want a world free of non-humans.”

“So do you,” David said and Hoberman glared. “It’s true. I’ve heard your views, remember?”

“Then I didn’t explain myself very well. I do not want genocide. I want
separation
. That should be clear enough for anyone to understand. Even you, Doc—Mister Lephmann. Shifters are dangerous, vampires are dangerous, ghouls, zombies, demons... all non-humans creatures are dangerous! They can kill us, infect us, and even
eat
us! They infect us and steal our humanity or our immortal souls, and you wonder why I want them segregated?”

“We’re veering away from the main point,” Chris said.

“Do you think so? I think AML’s views are at the heart of it. I don’t hold with Newman’s fanatical ideals—they’re tantamount to genocide, but I understand where he derives them from. Fear. I’m not ashamed to admit I fear you, David. I fear you, I fear your
kind
, and I fear what your kind does to ordinary people like me and to our society. Every human
changed
is a tragedy; every human
turned
is a tragedy.”

John Newman was a name well known in the Republic. He led the Anti-Monster League, and his ideals empowered its members to greater and greater atrocities against non-humans every year. He was a fugitive now, but a remarkably successful one in that he still ran his organisation despite having to hide from the federal government. A cynical man might believe the feds weren’t really interested in capturing him, and be right in his opinion.

“And you have the answer, don’t you?” he said.

“In the past we hunted and killed non-humans to protect ourselves, but now our young people seek them out wanting to join them! Some want excitement or the thrill of danger, but more and more are choosing the dubious benefits of immortality offered by vampires, or they’re seduced by the allure of longer healthier lifespans offered by shifters. The young are the future of the human race, and they’re being stolen from us!”

David laughed. “Paranoia.”

“Fact!” Hoberman rebutted. “My answer might not satisfy Newman’s fanatics, but it would work. Non-human enclaves administered and even protected by the federal government and the military.”

“Prisons,” David said flatly. “Worse. Concentration camps. Are you insane? Do you realise what would happen if your idea became reality?”

“We would be safe from things like you!”

“No you wouldn’t. Do you really think the elves would let you pen them up? Do you think the vampires would or my people? Wake up man! Look to Europe if you want to know what will happen. What you propose has been tried. It led to the last War of Races!”

He wasn’t an expert in European history by any means, but he knew the basics. The human-elven pact had ended the last War of Races, but only because the elves agreed to the founding of the Empire as a way of controlling the human population. It was a last ditch effort to prevent the continual persecution of the elves and by extension non-humans in general.

The Empire ruled all of Europe even to this day and had successfully kept the peace between the races. The half-elven emperors and empresses ruled from palaces in London and Berlin, alternating between the two every few years. The monarchies of Europe were so intermarried with each other and the elves that none was pure human any longer, and that more than anything had kept the peace.

Hoberman’s idea of segregation was the polar opposite of what was known to have worked in Europe, not that the elves living on this continent would dream of interbreeding with humans. They were as racist as Hoberman in their own way. They preferred to keep their bloodlines pure and free of human contamination, and looked sort of sideways at their kin in Europe for not doing the same.

“Now who is giving in to paranoia?” Hoberman said.

“You’re an idiot.”

“And you’re a—”

“Shut up both of you!” Chris said, glaring them both into silence. “We have bodies on the ground and people missing. I don’t have time or patience to listen to two little boys argue the toss over history lessons we all learned in eighth grade. I don’t give a crap about what the elves would or wouldn’t do, or what they think! What I care about is finding out where the missing people are. Do you know?”

Hoberman shook his head sullenly.

“Who might?”

“Wilson maybe. It depends on how much AML trusted him, or how much he
distrusted
them. If I had his resources I would have made it my business to find out as much about them as I could.”

David shook his head in disgust. “To blackmail them with you mean.”

Chris glared David into silence again. “Fine. Wilson is already on my shit list anyway. Now I have another reason to interview him. Let’s go.”

David followed as Chris stalked away

Hoberman hurried to catch up. “He won’t talk. Hells, he won’t even see you!”

“He will,” Chris said confidently, and opened the door to let herself out. “My badge will get us in.”

“And his high powered lawyers will see you right out again!”

“We’ll see.”

David watched her go for the elevator and secretly thought Hoberman might be right this time. “Keep your head down, George. This is likely to blow up in all our faces soon.”

Hoberman nodded. He didn’t exit his apartment, choosing instead to stand in the open doorway. “It’s what I’ve been doing. I’ve taken some vacation time and don’t plan on leaving my apartment for the next few weeks.” He looked down, obviously wanting to say more but hesitating. “I didn’t lie that day in your room. I really did try everything to save you from... from this.”

“This? You can’t even say it, can you? I’m a shifter. Say it.”

Hoberman glared. “I tried to save you,” he said and slammed the door in David’s face.

He heard the locks click.

“Are you coming or what?” Chris said holding the elevator doors.

“Seeing as I’m driving, that should probably be my line,” he said joining her in the elevator. “Where are we going?”

“Where do you think? To see Wilson of course.”

“Okay. Do you know where to find him at this time of night?”

“No, but I know how to find out,” Chris said and raised her link. “We detectives know stuff.”

“Hmph!”

Wilson apparently, was one of those workaholic night owls that David had heard tell of, but had never met. According to Chris’ sources, he was currently in his office at Techtron making billions of dollars or something for the mega corporation that he oversaw, and probably performing his evil overlord impression for his AML friends. David could easily imagine it. Such powerful men had reputations for being ruthless manipulators, and after talking with Hoberman, he was prepared for that to be the case here.

He drove them to the Techtron Building and into its parking facility beneath the massive chrome and glass needle-like tower. He parked as soon as he could and then rode the elevator up to the penultimate floor where Wilson held sway. Chris was quiet beside him, thinking cop thoughts, and tapping her thigh impatiently as the elevator raced for the 119
th
floor without stops.

“Do you credit Hoberman’s story?” he asked to break the uncomfortable silence.

“Hmmm.”

“Was that a yes hmmm, or a no hmmm?”

Her lips twitched toward a smile. “Yes.”

“Which?”

“Yes I think he was telling the truth. It doesn’t mean it is
the
truth, only that he believes it is.”

“You’re no help.”

“Be still my heart! My purpose in life isn’t to make yours easier. I’m only here because there’s a chance Marie Stirling is still alive and in need of my help. I’m here because if Wilson knows where she is, I might be able to get my hands on Michael Fabron. Remember him? The vampire who turned O’Neal and allowed him to run amok killing nine women in my city?”

“No need for snark.”

“You think that was snark? You haven’t heard snark. I don’t give a crap about your vampire. I have my own vamp to find. If Stephen is being held in the same place as Marie Stirling, then fine, I’ll help him too, but make no mistake—I’m looking for justice for nine dead women not to save a vampire from AML.”

“Fair enough.”

The doors opened and let them out on the 119
th
floor. It was late and the offices were deserted. They followed the signs and found their way to Wilson’s outer office and reception area. A feminine android was in charge of the reception desk at this time of night. David noticed that Chris seemed reluctant to approach it, and wondered why.

“Shall I?” he said waving a hand toward the pleasantly smiling machine.

“I’ll handle it,” she said and marched up to the desk. “Detective Humber, Robbery Homicide Division out of Central to see Christopher Wilson.”